Embracing Life: The Epitome of Growth

Embracing Life: The Epitome of Growth

Life has the potential to be disastrous or a catalyst for the great. The position is one that comes through the ability to evolve and develop as a person; always being able to respond to difference with fact and detail through research.

I had to the opportunity to reconnect with some brothers from my past this week. It had been about 4 years since we last sat together as a collective group. We started with a simple mission of developing a core group of dudes that would change the city, while being submitted to Christ. We all had different talents and skills that we brought to the table that made us a formidable team. We were all believers and wanted to build a movement that would do great things for Christ-in and outside the church.

As we grew so did the tension and egos that surmounts when you bring 7 to 9 personalities to the mix. We all had great ideas but refuse to humbly submit those ideas to God and to the others. We had our moments when we would be to the point of throwing blows on each other because we were so dogmatic about what we believed. Eventually, we started losing contact with each other. Some were tighter with others than the rest, so they stayed in touch but as a whole we stopped meeting on a weekly basis and pretty much went our separate ways.

Well as I mentioned in the first sentence, “Life has the potential to be disastrous or a catalyst for the great.” As we re-assembled, the look of exhaustion appeared to riddle the minds of us all. Not that we all had been living ungodly lives but I could see how much we have grown during the “grace period.”(as one brother so articulately placed it) I could see the questions swirling around as we talked. We had become greater men, we had attained new levels of wisdom-we had experienced growth.

I marveled and marvel at the impact of life upon the psyche, perception and purpose of men. Life has a way of breaking the strain and stronghold of pride and rendering you defeated unto humility. When pride can be exposed through the negotiating of life’s constant deal we fall victim to its trappings. But, when allowed to endure the hardship of being humble, we enter a beautiful struggle that is viewed by many as a testament of the love of God.

As I left those brothers, the what-ifs and what could have happened questions began to run through my mind once again. We could have started those companies and developed a church plant, and many other things that we had actually planned out as a team. Our perspective was wrong and our love for one another was weak, but mainly we lost focus upon the Lord Jesus. We became focused upon our own selfish pride and overlooked the impact of other brothers. The need for team was lost and we bought the hype of the emblematic Darwinist thought, “that only the strong survive.” We forgot about “in our weakness he is made strong” or “show brotherly love to all men.” Mos Def sums up the rhetorical thought that we left with that night in his song, Mathematics, “

Why did one straw break the camel’s back? Here’s the secret:
the million other straws underneath it – it’s all mathematics

Life broke us, but life also made us grow. We saw the need for other brothers…